Venetian blinds are commonly known in which vertical slats or strips are hung from slider members carried by a generally horizontal track. Commonly, pull cords are provided for moving the sliders to a desired position longitudinally of the track, and, for rotating the hangers about vertical axes to adjust the angular position of the vertical strips relative to each other.
More commonly, the vertical strips are metal strips and are painted or otherwise surface finished, including the applique of fabric material to a frontal face of the strips to enhance the decorative appearance thereof. Also, commonly, the strips themselves are formed of a textile material that has been sized, coated, or otherwise stiffened, such as strips of canvas, plisse, decorative weave bulky materials, such as Haitian cotton, or, so-called wood or bamboo strip weaves.
With such textile materials, the need arises not only to stiffen the fabric sufficiently for it to retain a substantially planar form when the strips are hung, but also to bond the fibres of the warps to an extent sufficient to prevent fraying out at the longitudinal edges of the strips, and to prevent unravelling of the threads.
These latter problems can be overcome by edge binding of the strips, but, only at a relatively high cost in manufacturing, and, at an increase in bulk of the strips at the edges thereof. Further, such operations tend to produce stresses in the strips that cause the strips to twist helically when hung, thus destroying the uniform appearance of the blind when in use. These latter problems are of course eliminated in the event the textile fabric is appliqued to a metal strip. However, such an organization of materials results in the elimination of the perceived hand and texture of the fabric, and its ability to filter light. The strips are then opaque due to the presence of the metal underlay or substrate, and are entirely mechanical in their appearance. Rather than to applique fabric to the metal slats or strips, a more convenient and cost effective approach is to print the metal strips in a manner simulating the texture and pattern of fabric and to suitably emboss the metal strips.